Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.
Spondylosis is the degeneration of the vertebral column from any cause. In the more narrow sense it refers to spinal osteoarthritis, the age-related degeneration of the spinal column, which is the most common cause of spondylosis. The degenerative process in osteoarthritis chiefly affects the vertebral bodies, the neural foramina and the facet joints. If severe, it may cause pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots with subsequent sensory or motor disturbances, such as pain, paresthesia, imbalance, and muscle weakness in the limbs.
Ralph Bingham Cloward was an American neurosurgeon, best known for his innovations in spinal neurosurgery. Cloward is known for the development of the Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion and Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion. Cloward moved from Chicago to Hawaii in 1938, becoming the state's lone neurosurgeon. He is well known for his work treating victims of brain injuries after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941.
Ananda College is a prestigious Buddhist school in Maradana, Colombo. It was established as the English Buddhist School by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1886. In the present day, it provides primary and secondary education on a campus of 15 acres (61,000 m2).
Spinal fusion, also called spondylodesis or spondylosyndesis, is a surgery performed by orthopaedic surgeons or neurosurgeons that joins two or more vertebrae. This procedure can be performed at any level in the spine and prevents any movement between the fused vertebrae. There are many types of spinal fusion and each technique involves using bone grafting—either from the patient (autograft), donor (allograft), or artificial bone substitutes—to help the bones heal together. Additional hardware is often used to hold the bones in place while the graft fuses the two vertebrae together. The placement of hardware can be guided by fluoroscopy, navigation systems, or robotics.
Nalanda College is a leading Buddhist school in Sri Lanka where provides primary and secondary education for Sri Lankan boys. The school was established by P. de S. Kularatne as an offshoot of Ananda College Colombo and was registered as a separate school on 1 November 1924.
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a surgical procedure to treat nerve root or spinal cord compression by decompressing the spinal cord and nerve roots of the cervical spine with a discectomy, followed by inter-vertebral fusion to stabilize the corresponding vertebrae. This procedure is used when other non-surgical treatments have failed.
Artificial disc replacement (ADR), or total disc replacement (TDR), is a type of arthroplasty. It is a surgical procedure in which degenerated intervertebral discs in the spinal column are replaced with artificial disc implants in the lumbar (lower) or cervical (upper) spine. The procedure is used to treat chronic, severe low back pain and cervical pain resulting from degenerative disc disease. Disc replacement is also an alternative intervention for symptomatic disc herniation with associated arm and hand, or leg symptoms.
Chitrananda Abeysekera (1930–1992) was a veteran broadcaster, poet, writer and an administrator. He joined Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, then Radio Ceylon as a radio announcer and retired as the Director of Sinhala Services in 1989. He was also the President of Aganuwara Tharuna Kavi Samajaya for more than a decade and initiated a lot of programs that benefited poets and the public alike. He restarted Kavi Suwanda, the poetry newspaper for poets. Chitrananda dedicated his whole life to Sinhala poetry and literature, not forgetting Radio Journalism.
Nilenthi Nimal Siripala de Silva MP is a Sri Lankan politician currently serving as the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation and as the acting chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He served as the Leader of the Opposition for a few months in 2015, and has served in several other ministerial posts: he is the former Cabinet Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation in 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka, former Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management and former Leader of the House.
Future Minds Organised by the Junior Old Boys association of Nalanda College Colombo in collaboration with Government of Sri Lanka is an annual three-day Educational and Career Guidance Exhibition in Sri Lanka held annually at BMICH, Colombo. Kandy City Centre and Galle Municipal Council host secondary exhibitions for the same following the primary one in Colombo.
Minimally invasive spine surgery, also known as MISS, has no specific meaning or definition. It implies a lack of severe surgical invasion. The older style of open-spine surgery for a relatively small disc problem used to require a 5-6 inch incision and a month in the hospital. MISS techniques utilize more modern technology, advanced imaging techniques and special medical equipment to reduce tissue trauma, bleeding, radiation exposure, infection risk, and decreased hospital stays by minimizing the size of the incision. Modern endoscopic procedures can be done through a 2 to 5 mm skin opening. By contrast, procedures done with a microscope require skin openings of approximately one inch, or more.
Shanthilal Devapriya Jayaratne MBBS, MD Post Graduate Institute of Medicine, Colombo, FRCP, FCCP was a professor of medicine at University of Sri Jayewardenepura and was Chairman of State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPC) and State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC). Jayaratne is the chairman of National Medicines Regulatory Authority, and former chairman of Sri Jayawardenepura General Hospital.
Neurosurgery in Sri Lanka
Prof Udaya Ranawaka is a Senior Consultant Neurologist to the North Colombo Teaching Hospital(NCTH), Ragama, and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya,
Richard N.W. Wohns is a neurosurgeon who is the founder and president of NeoSpine, LLC. He has been listed one of the 50 Spine Surgeons and Specialists to Know by Becker's ASC Review. He currently practices and teaches medicine in the Puget Sound Region of Washington, United States.
Michael Fehlings is a Canadian neurosurgeon based at Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Fehlings specializes in complex spine surgery with a special interest in traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury and spine oncology. He mainly focuses on preclinical and clinical translational research related to enhancing repair and regeneration of the injured central nervous system. He holds many positions, including Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Vice Chair Research at the University of Toronto, Robert Campeau Foundation/Dr. C.H. Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research at UHN, Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, McLaughlin Scholar in Molecular Medicine, and Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. He is the past inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program, and was the previous Medical Director at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Fehlings is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada.
Kala Suri Somalatha Subasinghe was a Sri Lankan actress, playwright, theatre director and educator from Sri Lanka. She received both the Kala Suri and the Kala Keerthi in recognition of her contribution to Sri Lankan theatre.
Charles Anthony Fager was an American neurosurgeon, medical academic, and leader at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center.
Thomas Schuler, M.D., F.A.C.S is an American spinal surgeon, researcher and educator in the treatment of neck and low back conditions. He was an early adopter of stem cell therapy, biologics, robotics, laser and hybrid surgery and augmented reality for spinal surgery. Schuler specializes in cervical and lumbar disc replacement procedures, minimally invasive spine surgery and robotic spine surgery. He performed the first hybrid multi-level cervical artificial disc replacement with spinal fusion in the country. He founded a practice that has performed some of the first robotic and augmented reality spinal surgeries in the world. In 2002 he created and currently serves as President of the National Spine Health Foundation, a national non-profit focused on education, research and patient advocacy of neck and back health.
